I thought match was over, admits Blanc

15 June 2012 09:48

France coach Laurent Blanc admitted he feared his side's game with Ukraine would be cancelled after a torrential thunderstorm held up their group match for almost an hour.

"Our fear was that we wouldn't be able to play the game, because we really wanted to play," he said.

"We were 30 minutes late for the Euro against England and the weather meant that we still couldn't start properly against Ukraine.

"But things were sorted out. The stadium was still in a good state and the pitch enabled us to play.

"We were worried the conditions would make it difficult. We planned certain things in case the pitch didn't let us play, changes of strategy, but we quickly saw the pitch was in good condition and we were able to play our football."